Desperate Help Needed!!! Black screen, unresponsive, started with MemTest86+

[Ranglah]

I'm running a P4 3.2GHz desktop
1 GB DDR
512MB Nvidia 7600GS
200GB HD
ECS PT800CE-A MoBo:

I recently upgraded to 2 GB DDR, and began having problems when installing games where I would receive "Error 1335: data.cab file is corrupted, blah, blah, blah" which I linked to possibly being a memory problem.

After downloading MemTest86+ and running it, about halfway through the test the screen went black, HD light turned a solid red, and the whole computer was unresponsive. The monitor light went from blue to orange and a "no signal detected" came on the screen (as if the hard disk was shut down).

I reboot and try to run MemTest86+ again, and the same thing happens after about 2 minutes of running.

Again I reboot, try again, and the same thing happens.

Prior to running MemTest, I did have to go into the BIOS and change the boot order before running MemTest. Other than that I did not touch anything in the BIOS.

After the issue, I reloaded optimized defaults in BIOS and updated the BIOS after the problem arose.
I have also checked the BIOS for any USB legacy support and there is no option (as MemTest says if this is enabled, it may cause problems).
I have since swapped back to my 1 GB known working memory and the problem persists.
The problem also happens when I try to play games (running Dark Messiah of Might and Magic from CD and WoW from the HD). Game loads and runs fine for about 2 minutes before the screen goes black, unresponsive, etc.
I have reinstalled (cleanly) my graphics drivers and the problem persists.

Please help me.
Other than when trying to run MemTest86+ and games, the computer runs normally.
I traded an occasional install error for a complete lack of gaming.
This blows.

 

[gavinseabrook]

Do you have your mem timings/latency set up correctly in the BIOS?

 

[Nodsu]

Could it be that the system is overheating? Also, try the failsafe BIOS defaults instead of the "optimized" ones.

 

[Ranglah]

Thank you both for your responses. I ended up taking it to a technician (first time i've used a tech in years to fix my computer problems). I figured I'm best not messing with it. And I just don't have a spare, working mobo, psu, etc to fully diagnose it.

I don't know the correct memory/latency settings. And I thought overheating was an issue. I should've tried the fail safe bios settings, but after simply changing the date in my bios (it of course was incorrect after my update) my whole computer became crap and I couldn't even use IE7. I should hear back from the tech tomorrow, and I will try to post what he finds on here in hopes of helping anyone else who in the future has a similar issue. Whether some piece of hardware was failing or a setting was changed (by memtest), it definately occured after running memtest so whatever it was.....if memtest wasn't the cause, it was the kicker (to kick it over the edge).

 

[Tedster]

check your PSU